AEA Technology plc was formed in 1996 as the privatised offshoot of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. Originally it consisted of divisions with expertise in a wide variety of areas, mostly the products of nuclear-related research. These included nuclear safety, nuclear engineering, environmental protection, battery technology and non-destructive testing. It mainly acted as a contractor organisation for UKAEA and other governmental and private customers. Subsequently it acquired British Rail Research (from the British Railways Board) and a number of engineering software organisations. 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was established in 1954 as a statutory corporation to oversee and pioneer the development of nuclear energy within the United Kingdom. ... Nuclear safety is a term which underscores and understates the danger implicit in the use of nuclear materials, and may be used to describe measures taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents. ... Nuclear engineering is the practical application of the atomic nucleus gleaned from principles of nuclear physics and the interaction between radiation and matter. ... Environmental movement is a term often used for any social or political movement directed towards the preservation, restoration, or enhancement of the natural environment. ... A government is a body that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group. ... The British Rail Research Division came into being in 1964 directly under the control of the British Railways Board, moving into purpose-built premises at the Railway Technical Centre in Derby. ... Logo of British Rail British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997. ... Engineering is the application of scientific and technical knowledge to solve human problems. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...

The company has divested almost all of the nuclear-related elements of the business, and is now focusing on rail and environmental work. As of 2006 the AEA Technology Nuclear Programmes comprises one small business unit: Waste Management Technology (WMTD - formerly part of the divested Nuclear Science business) provides comprehensive radioactive waste management services including sampling, categorisation, processing and disposal.

Its main UK operations are located at Harwell (head office), London, Derby, Glengarnock, Risley and Winfrith. It also has an international presence in Europe, North America, and Asia. St Matthews Church in Harwell. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... Derby (pronounced dar-bee ) is a city in the East Midlands of England. ... Glengarnock is a small village in North Ayrshire that lies on the West coast of Scotland. ... Risley is a neighbourhood in the northeast corner of Warrington. ... Winfrith Newburgh is a village in south Dorset, England, situated in the Purbecks six miles west of Wareham. ...

AEA Technology plc is a UK Notified Body, under The Railways (Interoperability) (Notified Bodies) Regulations 2000, in six TSI areas: Control Centres and Signalling, Energy, Infrastructure, Maintenance, Operations, and Rolling Stock. UK Notified Bodies (UK NoBos) are UK bodies authorised to assess the compatibility of works or equipment with Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI) as part of the system to effectively and safely allow the interoperability of railway services within the European Union. ...

In February 2006, AEA Technology was fined £250,000 and ordered to pay £151,323 costs after one of its protective flasks, containing a piece of decommissioned cancer treatment equipment, which had been decommissioned at Cookridge Hospital Leeds, was driven 130 miles across Northern England to the Windscale site on the Sellafield complex in Cumbria. A "pencil-straight" 8 mm wide beam of radiation escaped through the bottom of the flask, pointing directly into the ground as the container made its journey on March 10, 2002. In experimental physics and elsewhere, decommissioning is the formal process intended to shut down an apparatus such as a particle accelerator. ... Leeds is the urban core of the metropolitan borough and city the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire in the north of England. ... The three northern Regions Northern England is a rather ill-defined term, with no universally accepted definition. ... Sellafield aerial view. ... The Sellafield facility on the Cumbrian coast, United Kingdom Sellafield is the name of a nuclear site, close to the village and railway station of Seascale, () [1] operated by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), but owned since 1 April 2005 by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. ... Cumbria is a county in the North West region of England. ...

External links

• AEA Technology website